The Best Virtual Team Building Activity Ideas

Unleashing the Power of Virtual Team Building: 7 Tips for a Successful Remote Teams

Introduction:

In today’s fast-paced world, where remote team work is becoming the new norm, virtual team building activity ideas have gained tremendous importance as a means to improve employee morale. They not only foster strong team bonds but also boost morale, productivity, and collaboration. However, organizing a successful virtual event or fun activity requires careful planning and execution. In this blog post, we will share seven tips to ensure you choose the right virtual activity to hit the bullseye!

1. Choose the Right Virtual Team Building Games: (see options below)

Selecting the right virtual games is crucial for your remote team / hybrid teams and for your employee engagement initiatives. Consider the interests, preferences, and demographics of your remote team members. Whether it’s a virtual escape room, trivia night, digital scavenger hunts, murder mystery or a creative challenge, ensure that the activity aligns with their interests and promotes teamwork & employee engagement. A healthy dose of friendly competition might help as long as it maintains inclusivity. 

Also There are overhyped and overused simplistic activities that are neither relevant nor engaging. Using these might set you back in your quest for a more engaged workforce or your team-building efforts. ensure that you know the activities to avoid.

2. Embrace Technology for your team building event:

Make technology and relevant tools, your best friend while organizing remote team building activities. Choose a reliable video conferencing/video call platform that you use for virtual meetings – such as zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams that supports features like breakout rooms, screen sharing, and interactive chats for the virtual meeting. Test the technology in advance to avoid any last-minute glitches. Build the momentum using Slack channels and other internal tools.

3. Mix Fun and Learning:

Who said team-building has to be all work and no play? Infusing your online game with a healthy dose of fun and learning is well…a fun way to keep things interesting. Incorporate icebreaker questions, energizers, first person and team challenges that encourage real-time collaboration, problem-solving, and creativity. Remember, when people are having fun, they are more likely to engage and forge meaningful connections. Make sure you know which activities to avoid. Innovation, relevance and engagement is key – not ease of use.

4. Keep It Short and Sweet:

Virtual activities should be kept relatively short to maintain engagement. Plan for activities that can be be setup quickly and completed within an hour, so as not to overwhelm participants. Additionally, consider breaking up the activity into smaller segments to provide variety and keep energy levels high. Or ensure that the activity you’re choosing is interesting and engaging to begin with. Keeping the time frame for the engagement short, is a great way to engage remote employees. Just because it is short doesn’t mean it cannot be high on employee satisfaction. If you conduct these team building events on a regular basis, you are well on your way to score on all your employee engagement initiatives. 

5. Foster Communication and Interaction:

One of the biggest challenges for remote teams is creating opportunities for better communication skills and interaction. Encourage participants to share ideas, thoughts, and opinions through email, breakout sessions, group discussions, or chat features. This will help to build trust, strengthen relationships, and foster a sense of belonging within the team. Some of the best virtual team building experiences are built around these principles. 

6. Recognize and Celebrate Achievements:

Don’t forget to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of your hybrid teams and participants to encourage better employee experiences. Recognize remote employees or teams who performed exceptionally well, and highlight their efforts during the virtual event and activity. This will not only boost morale, job satisfaction but also create better company culture & a positive and motivating environment for future team building exercises and team meetings.

7. Gather Feedback and Learn from the Experience:

After the online team building games, take the time to gather feedback from the entire team and participants. You could do this as a follow up or as virtual coffee breaks. Ask for their thoughts, suggestions, and ideas for improvement. Use this feedback template to refine your approach for future employee engagement activities, ensuring continuous growth, bonding and improvement within your team as well as how to do better at your official virtual meetings too. 

Conclusion:

Virtual team building activities have the power to bring teams closer, enhance collaboration, and boost overall performance. By following these seven tips, you can ensure that virtual team building activities become the mainstay of your employee experiences and is a resounding success. So, what are you waiting for? Unleash the power of virtual team building and watch your team soar.

Virtual Activities To Avoid: Bingo, Trivia, Quiz, scavenger, etc

Avoid the over hyped trivia questions, quizzes, bingo, virtual happy hour, lame book clubs, and Pictionary challenges that offer simple leaderboards that are accessed through your conference calls . These have been around for 20+ years and repackaged. When you choose these kind of activities, you’re sending a wrong message to your team. Also, you’ll see enthusiasm wane, participation drops and avoidance to do any virtual activities. This might make virtual offices, remote work and hybrid workspaces even more distant in relationships.